Illegal immigrant charged with using other illegal immigrants to run sex trafficking scheme

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has accused an illegal immigrant of transporting other undocumented migrant women across state lines to sell them in a sex trafficking operation.

Maria Antonia Zavaleta-Perez, 40, also known as “La China,” is a Mexican national who had been living in the Goose Creek area of South Carolina, where ICE said they surveyed her transporting the women to and from her home from North Carolina. ICE alleges that either Zavaleta-Perez, who had no legal status in the country, or a co-conspirator would transport two women at a time from North Carolina and keep them at her home while delivering them to clients for prostitution.